By Irfan Shariff
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
Volunteers who cleaned up the CID on May 18, 2024 (Photo by Irfan Shariff)
A large group of volunteers gathered at Hing Hay Park on a typical rainy Seattle morning to help kick off the city’s third annual One Seattle Day of Service, held last Saturday, May 18.
This was one of three volunteer sites in the Chinatown-International District (CID) and 130 throughout the city. More than 2,500 people registered to clean, beautify, and restore streets and neighborhoods.
YK Zhou, a program manager with the Chinatown-International District Business Improvement Area (CIDBIA), led efforts for the volunteers at Hing Hay Park. This group was armed with trash bags and pickers and walked the streets of the CID cleaning up debris.
Zhou’s work at the CIDBIA includes what he calls “the sanitation side of the neighborhood.” His purview includes organizing events similar to the annual Day of Service, but doing so every month.
Over the last three years, he’s noticed increased volunteerism in the CID for the annual Day of Service.
“I’ve seen this progress as an event. More people are signing up,” he said, citing the 80 registrations for his site alone, compared to about 50 last year, and about 20 to 30 two years ago.
Prior to the Day of Service, groups like the CIDBIA signed up to host hyper-localized events. While the city provided equipment to get the job done, the hosting organization was responsible for coordinating the volunteers at the site. A signup site through the city allowed volunteers to find locations or organizations they wanted to help.
Jessica Tan and her partner, who live near the Danny Woo Community Garden, did just that.
“We live close by and like this park,” Tan said, who often goes for walks through the gardens. This was their first time volunteering at the Day of Service, which they learned about through an Instagram ad.
Restaurant 2 Garden, a gardening and composting project that is tucked up in the northwest corner of the Danny Woo Garden, hosted a Day of Service event led by founder Joycelyn Chui and attended by Tan.
“Composting is a labor of love,” said Chui, as she sampled fresh compost to the small handful of volunteers. Chui took the volunteers armed with buckets down to the restaurant Itsumono to collect food scraps that they’d further chop up and prepare for composting using the Bokashi method.
Restaurant 2 Garden does this weekly on Saturdays and still cannot provide enough compost to gardeners at Danny Woo. Chui hopes to expand services and support more through community composting.
Interim Community Development Association also hosted a gardening event at the Danny Woo Community Garden.
“As your mayor, I cannot do this alone,” said Mayor Bruce Harrell at a kickoff the morning of the Day of Service.
Among volunteers and guests at the opening remarks event in Occidental Square included Amazon leaders, Seattle Seahawks and Seattle Sounders, and city council members. All volunteers were invited to return that afternoon for an Amazon-sponsored concert.
The Day of Service is a part of the mayor’s One Seattle initiative that aims to drive improvements throughout the city, and a “day we can put all our values and energy into action.”
“Thank you, thank you, thank you for helping out the city,” said Harrell. “We can accomplish more when we work together.”